Image via Eastern Michigan Athletics
Central Michigan: How’d they get here?
Just last year, Central Michigan was in the thick of a busy MAC championship-bidding race and fell short right at the end. It was a team with a first-year head coach that the league’s coaches predicted to finish ninth in the final standings. CMU finished fifth with a 7-6 overall record, 5-3 in MAC play.
The MAC is filled with recognizable characters. Some schools with a little more wealth and attention can see themselves as the league’s upper crust. The schools at the bottom tier, desperate for anything to go right, know who they are.
CMU, for as long as I’ve been following this league, is a perennial dark horse pick. Some variance between the years, but Central doesn’t get thrown around a ton. CMU hardly ever comes into a season with league-besting expectations, but that doesn’t seem to really stop the Chippewas from sometimes having good seasons that lead their way to Detroit at the end of the year.
While CMU hasn’t won a MAC title since 2009 (seven since 1979), CMU came out on top of the old MAC West divisional race in 2019, a year after CMU went 1-11 under eventually-fired John Bonamego, and tied with Northern Illinois in 2021 for a shared divisional title.
2014 Dan Enos: 7-6 (5-3 MAC)
2015 John Bonamego: 7-6 (6-2 MAC)
2016 John Bonamego: 6-7 (3-5 MAC)
2017 John Bonamego: 8-5 (6-2 MAC)
2018 John Bonamego: 1-11 (0-8 MAC)
2019 Jim McElwain: 8-6 (6-2 MAC); MAC West champions
2020 Jim McElwain: 3-3 (3-3 MAC)
2021 Jim McElwain: 9-4 (6-2 MAC); MAC West co-champions
2022 Jim McElwain): 4-8 (3-5 MAC)
2023 Jim McElwain: 5-7 (3-5 MAC)
2024 Jim McElwain: 4-8 (2-6 MAC)
2025 Matt Drinkall: 7-6 (5-3 MAC)
To his credit, CMU alum Bonamego was able to keep his team good when it could’ve crumbled upon Dan Enos’ ugly-timed exit in 2014 to be Arkansas’ offensive coordinator. But some years into Bonamego’s tenure, the relationship between CMU and Bonamego and his wife got so bad that he, upon a 1-11 season, was dismissed.
The Jim McElwain era gave CMU immediate success. In his first season, Central won its first divisional title in 10 years. Then it shared a West championship with NIU just two years later. In his first three seasons, McElwain’s teams went 20-13 overall, 15-7 in MAC play. His fourth through sixth seasons, it was obvious that there needed to be a change: 13-23 overall, 8-16 MAC.
McElwain took an administrative role with the program, and Matt Drinkall, with Iowa football in his blood (played and student-coached, 2001-02) and Kansas Wesleyan (NAIA) and Army in his bones (coached, 2014-2024), coached with a lot of guts as a Year 1 coach in 2025. CMU was so hell-bent on running the football that the offense ended the year with the sixth-fewest pass attempts in the nation (255).
CMU, after it overachieved by some standards last year, was tabbed to go fifth again this season. Of course, even though CMU was a fourth-quarter letdown against Western Michigan from having an egg thrown at the top of last year’s MAC standings to force a 5-way tie for first place, none of the coaches picked CMU to win this year’s conference race.
Nobody should be surprised if (and when) CMU overachieves again this year.
PLAYERS OF NOTE
QB, Angel Flores — CMU ran a 2-quarterback rotation of quarterbacks throughout the year, but Flores was the workhorse QB on a run-first offense. He was the team’s leading rusher until he suffered a late-season injury. Flores had almost four times as many rushing attempts (107 att., for 527 yards, 8 TD) as he did pass attempts (28 att., 19 completions, 195 yards, 2 TD).
RB, Vaughn Blue — Incoming transfer from Liberty where he rushed for 557 yards on 101 attempts (5.5 avg.), and 3 TD.
WR, Langston Lewis — Lewis returns after he gained Third Team All-MAC status last year. For the year, he had 43 catches for 596 yards and scored 3 times.
DE, Korver Demma — A second-year transfer from Northwestern College (NAIA), who started his college career at Nebraska. Demma was a starting D-end for the Chippewas all season long. Demma had 27 tackles last season (8.5 for loss, 3.5 sacks) with one pass breakup and a forced fumble.
CB, Jaion Jackson — Jackson’s been fortunate enough to be a full-time contributor at CMU as early as his true freshman season. He had nine starts in 2024, then 13 last year. Entering his third year, Jackson has made 86 total tackles (51 solo, 6.5 TFL, 2 sacks), 1 interception, 11 pass breakups, and caused a fumble.
